Working for public and animal health

You are here: VLA Home Page | Research & Surveillance | Emerging diseases

Emerging diseases

Disease surveillance

Our surveillance work covers the collection of disease data via passive disease scanning. All of this work is carried out at VLA's 15 Regional Laboratories and two Surveillance Centres. The work is published in reports to government policymakers and other interested parties. We:

• immediately report suspect notifiable diseases and suspected cases of exotic non-notifiable diseases to the Food and Farming Group of Defra (FFG).

• identify potential new and emerging diseases, zoonotic infections (spread from animal to man) and intoxications.

• summarise the current national disease status and identify trends, novel diseases and associated changes in risk and from this present quarterly and annual reports by species to the FFG.

• present monthly national (England and Wales) endemic disease reports to FFG covering diseases occurring in farmed species and wildlife in England and Wales.

• publish edited versions of the above report for publication in the Veterinary Record.

• produce Annual Veterinary Investigation Diagnosis Analysis (VIDA) reports including data from England, Wales and Scotland.

• produce ad hoc reports to FFG assessing risks and hazards to the livestock industry resulting from local investigations into new and emerging diseases. These also include information gathered by VLA specialists from their contacts with national and international networks of scientists.

• publish data to the scientific community and the industry through presentation at conferences and meetings, publications in peer review journals and the farming press.

Disease research

We carry out detailed scientific research into new diseases and changes in recognised diseases which have been identified by the scanning surveillance system. We produce:

• regular planned reports on the progress of the research and annual reports to customers.

• reports to customers on completion of the project which may also be amalgamated with other endemic disease surveillance or research reports to provide an overview covering all aspects of a disease.

• publication of data to the scientific community and the industry through presentation at conferences and meetings, publications in peer review journals and the farming press.